---
title: Jeremiah 9:11 (JPS 1917) — Who is the wise man, that he may understand this? · tree and pragmatics
description: Who is the wise man, that he may understand this? Who acts: wise man, Jerusalem. Jeremiah 9:11 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Jeremiah 9:11 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 3

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Who is the wise man, that he may understand this?

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**Who acts:** wise man, Jerusalem · **What happens:** be, understand · **To what, where:** this

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This is Jeremiah 9:11 · JPS 1917, sentence 1 of 3 in the English of the Jewish Publication Society's 1917 translation, from Mova's open Bible corpus. The page gives the sentence's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies, parsed by Mova and checked by a teacher model — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wise man, Jerusalem), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it. The original of the verse links back to its own tree and to the Targum.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = jps:JER:279
# text = Who is the wise man, that he may understand this?
1	Who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	wise	wise	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	may	may	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	1	advcl	_	_
11	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	10	obj	_	_
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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- form: wh-question
- act: ask
- voice: character
- polarity: none
- teacher: changed voice=character

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the wise man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **understand** | may | Jerusalem | this |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

## The Hebrew of this verse {#hebrew}

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מִֽי־הָאִ֤ישׁ הֶֽחָכָם֙ וְיָבֵ֣ן אֶת־זֹ֔את וַאֲשֶׁ֨ר דִּבֶּ֧ר פִּֽי־יְהוָ֛ה אֵלָ֖יו וְיַגִּדָ֑הּ עַל־מָה֙ אָבְדָ֣ה הָאָ֔רֶץ נִצְּתָ֥ה כַמִּדְבָּ֖ר מִבְּלִ֖י עֹבֵֽר׃ס

[Jeremiah 9:11: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and Targum Jonathan →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/JER.9.11/)

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This verse in JPS 1917:

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1. **Who is the wise man, that he may understand this?**
2. [And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JER.280/)
3. [Wherefore is the land perished and laid waste like a wilderness, so that none passeth through?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JER.281/)

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**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:JER:279` of Mova's parse database.

**The tree and the speech act** come from Mova's cycle: the small model's draft, read by a large model as teacher, passed by Mova's gates (Elamur Cosmic License). **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the chapter read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence of the chapter.

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